Salmond expressed his pride in the historic 85 percent turnout in
Thursday's referendum and the manner in which Scots conducted
themselves.

"We now have the opportunity to hold Westminster’s feet to
the fire on the “vow” that they have made to devolve further
meaningful power to Scotland. This places Scotland in a very
strong position," he said.

It has been a privilege 2 serve under Alex Salmond. He has
brought gr8 confidence2 our nation &social progress 2
Scotland in face of UK cuts

The First Minister spoke
to Prime Minister David Cameron on Friday. He said the PM would
not commit to a second reading vote by March 27 on a devolved
powers 'Scotland Bill', which had been promised by former-PM and
'No' campaigner Gordon Brown during the campaign.

"I suspect he cannot
guarantee the support of his party," Salmond said, referring
to the backbench Tory rebellion against new powers to
Scotland.

"But today the point is this. The real guardians of progress
are not the politicians at Westminster, or even at Holyrood, but
the energised activism of tens of thousands of people who I
predict will refuse meekly to go back into the political
shadows."

Salmond: Strike our independence movement down and it will come
back more powerful than you can possibly imagine.